{"id":13408,"date":"2026-10-27T12:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T04:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manhattansez.com\/?p=13408"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:48:44","slug":"angkor-wat-zhou-daguan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattansez.com\/en\/angkor-wat-zhou-daguan\/","title":{"rendered":"Angkor Wat and Zhou Daguan: The Only Surviving Eyewitness Account of Daily Life in the Khmer Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Summary: <\/strong>Zhou Daguan (\u5468\u8fbe\u89c2), a Yuan-dynasty envoy from Wenzhou, arrived at Angkor in August 1296 and left in July 1297. His book Zhenla Fengtu Ji (\u771f\u81d8\u98a8\u571f\u8a18), translated as A Record of Cambodia or The Customs of Cambodia, describes the capital’s buildings, markets, festivals and daily life in 40 sections, and is the only surviving first-person account of everyday life in the Khmer Empire. Angkor Wat itself was built in the first half of the 12th century under King Suryavarman II and is listed by Guinness World Records as the largest religious structure in the world.

This article sets Zhou’s text beside the ruins that stand today, and covers his sea route, the trade in Chinese goods he recorded, the festivals and seasons he described, and Angkor today: restoration work, ticket prices and visitor numbers.

(Last updated: 27 October 2026)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

1. Angkor Wat and A Record of Cambodia at a glance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Angkor Wat is a 12th-century Khmer state temple; A Record of Cambodia is the account Zhou Daguan wrote after visiting Angkor in 1296\u201397. The capital he described is part of the Angkor site that visitors walk through today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Item<\/th>Details<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Angkor Wat<\/td>Built between 1113 and 1150 under King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple to Vishnu; gradually became a Buddhist temple from the late 12th century<\/td><\/tr>
Size<\/td>Site of 162.6 hectares; listed by Guinness World Records as the largest religious structure in the world<\/td><\/tr>
Angkor (World Heritage Site)<\/td>Inscribed by UNESCO in 1992; about 400 km\u00b2, the site of successive Khmer capitals from the 9th to the 15th century<\/td><\/tr>
Author of the Record<\/td>Zhou Daguan, a native of Wenzhou in Yuan-dynasty China<\/td><\/tr>
Stay at Angkor<\/td>Arrived August 1296, left July 1297<\/td><\/tr>
Length<\/td>40 sections; the surviving text is believed to be about a third of the original<\/td><\/tr>
Historical value<\/td>The only surviving first-person written record of daily life in the Khmer Empire<\/td><\/tr>
International visitors, 2025<\/td>955,131, down 6.7% from 2024 (Angkor Enterprise)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Sources: Wikipedia, UNESCO, Xinhua; see References.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Zhenla (\u771f\u81d8) was the Chinese name for Cambodia. Zhou’s opening section notes that the country “calls itself Ganbozhi (\u7518\u5b5b\u667a)”, a name close in sound to Kambuja. The Khmer name of the country today, Kampuchea, derives from the Sanskrit Kambujade\u015ba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Who built Angkor Wat, and when?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Angkor Wat was commissioned by the Khmer king Suryavarman II and built between 1113 and 1150 as a Hindu state temple dedicated to Vishnu. From the late 12th century it gradually became a Buddhist temple, and it remains a Buddhist centre today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temple stands in today’s Siem Reap Province and was built in Ya\u015bodharapura, the Khmer capital of the time. Unlike most Angkorian temples, which face east, Angkor Wat faces west. An image of the temple has appeared on the Cambodian national flag since the first version of the flag in 1863.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The front of Angkor Wat (Photo: Bj\u00f8rn Christian T\u00f8rrissen \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The galleries are lined with bas-reliefs. The best known, on the east gallery, shows the Churning of the Sea of Milk: Vishnu directs 92 asuras and 88 devas as they pull the serpent Vasuki to churn the ocean. Another gallery shows a procession of Suryavarman II, the only historical scene among the temple’s reliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angkor Wat is only one part of Angkor. UNESCO describes a site of about 400 km\u00b2 that held successive Khmer capitals from the 9th to the 15th century. Angkor Thom, the walled city just north of Angkor Wat, was the capital Zhou Daguan visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What is A Record of Cambodia?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Record of Cambodia (Zhenla Fengtu Ji) is Zhou Daguan’s account of his mission to Cambodia. Its 40 sections cover the buildings, markets, festivals, produce and daily life of late-13th-century Angkor, and it is one of the most important written sources on the Khmer Empire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhou came from Wenzhou, on China’s south-east coast. In 1295 the Yuan emperor Chengzong (Tem\u00fcr Khan) sent an embassy to Zhenla, and Zhou joined it; he returned in 1297. The Siku Quanshu catalogue, compiled in the 18th century, records the book as having 40 sections and notes that it fills a gap left by the official History of Yuan, which has no chapter on Zhenla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Contents
The contents and first page of Zhenla Fengtu Ji (Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Wikipedia, Zhou wrote the book within 15 years of his return. The surviving text is believed to be a truncated and revised version, perhaps a third of the original length. Apart from this book, the written record of Angkor consists largely of inscriptions on temple walls, which is why Zhou’s account is described as the only surviving first-person record of daily life in the Khmer Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/th>Edition or translation<\/th>Notes<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1819<\/td>French translation<\/td>By the sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-R\u00e9musat<\/td><\/tr>
1902<\/td>French translation<\/td>By Paul Pelliot; later revised, and the basis for earlier English and German versions<\/td><\/tr>
1981<\/td>Annotated Chinese edition<\/td>By the archaeologist Xia Nai, who compared 11 versions of the text (Pelliot knew of three); republished by the Commercial Press in 2016<\/td><\/tr>
2007<\/td>A Record of Cambodia (English)<\/td>By Peter Harris, the first direct translation from Chinese into modern English<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Sources: Wikipedia (Zhou Daguan) and Angkor Database; see References.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The book still features in China\u2013Cambodia relations. In a signed article published in Cambodian media in April 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping described it as an important document for the study of Cambodian history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. How did Zhou Daguan travel to Angkor?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the book’s opening section, the embassy left Mingzhou (today’s Ningbo) in the second lunar month of 1296, put to sea from Wenzhou on the 20th day, reached Champa on the 15th day of the third month and, after contrary winds, arrived in Cambodia in the seventh month. It sailed home in the sixth month of 1297 and reached Ningbo on the 12th day of the eighth month.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date (Chinese lunar calendar)<\/th>Place<\/th>What the text records<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Sixth month, 1295<\/td>Yuan court<\/td>An embassy is sent to Zhenla; Zhou joins it<\/td><\/tr>
Second month, 1296<\/td>Mingzhou (Ningbo, Zhejiang)<\/td>Departure<\/td><\/tr>
20th day, second month<\/td>Port of Wenzhou<\/td>Puts to sea, passing the ports of Fujian and Guangdong, the Qizhou Sea and the Jiaozhi Sea off Vietnam<\/td><\/tr>
15th day, third month<\/td>Champa (central Vietnam)<\/td>Arrival at Champa<\/td><\/tr>
Seventh month<\/td>Zhenla<\/td>Arrival after contrary winds<\/td><\/tr>
Sixth month, 1297<\/td>Zhenla<\/td>Return voyage begins<\/td><\/tr>
12th day, eighth month<\/td>Siming (Ningbo)<\/td>Anchors at home<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Source: Zhenla Fengtu Ji, opening section (Wikisource). In the Western calendar Zhou reached Angkor in August 1296 and left in July 1297.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inside Cambodia, the text describes sailing up from the coast for about half a month to Zhanan, then changing to small boats for more than ten days and crossing a “freshwater sea” to a landing 50 li from the capital. Following scholarly reconstructions, Wikipedia traces this route up the Mekong into the Tonle Sap River to Kampong Chhnang, then by small boat across Tonle Sap Lake to Angkor. The seasonal rise and fall of the lake and the Mekong is also the origin of the Cambodian Water Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Zhou Daguan’s Angkor Thom compared with the ruins today<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zhou described a capital with five gates, a moat crossed by stone causeways lined with figures pulling serpents, and great stone faces above the gates looking in four directions. Each of these features can still be seen at Angkor Thom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Zhou wrote (editor's translation)<\/th>Angkor Thom today<\/th>Source<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
"The city wall is about 20 li around, with five gates… only the east side has two gates"<\/td>Walls about 3 km long on each side and 8 m high, enclosing 9 km\u00b2; a gate at each cardinal point, plus the Victory Gate 500 m north of the east gate<\/td>Wikipedia (Angkor Thom)<\/td><\/tr>
"On both sides of the bridges stand 54 stone gods… all 54 grasp the serpent in their hands"<\/td>On each causeway, a row of devas on one side and asuras on the other hold a naga as if in a tug-of-war<\/td>Wikipedia (Angkor Thom)<\/td><\/tr>
"Above the gates are five great stone Buddha heads, facing the four directions"<\/td>Gate towers about 23 m high carry faces looking in four directions, in the style of the Bayon<\/td>Wikipedia (Angkor Thom)<\/td><\/tr>
"At the centre of the country stands a golden tower"<\/td>The Bayon, Jayavarman VII's state temple, stands at the centre of the city<\/td>Wikipedia (Angkor Thom)<\/td><\/tr>
"About one li north of the golden tower is a bronze tower, taller still"<\/td>The Baphuon, which Wikipedia identifies as Zhou's "Tower of Bronze"<\/td>Wikipedia (Baphuon)<\/td><\/tr>
"The North Pool… has a golden square tower in it"<\/td>Wikipedia notes that Zhou's account refers to Neak Pean<\/td>Wikipedia (Neak Pean)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Original text: Zhenla Fengtu Ji, section on the city walls (Wikisource).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"South
The south gate of Angkor Thom: figures on the causeway hold a naga, and the gate tower carries faces looking four ways (Photo: Supanut Arunoprayote \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia’s account of Angkor Thom links the tug-of-war figures to the Churning of the Sea of Milk, a myth popular at Angkor. Who the faces on the gate towers represent is debated: the king himself, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, guardians of the four directions, or a combination of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After describing the golden and bronze towers and the palace, Zhou adds that this is presumably why merchant ships had long praised the country as “rich and noble Zhenla”. Angkor Thom was founded by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century and was the last and most enduring capital of the Khmer Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. How did people trade at Angkor 700 years ago?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zhou’s section on trade records that buying and selling was done by women, at a market held once a day; small purchases were paid in rice, grain or Chinese goods, and large ones in gold and silver. A separate section lists the Chinese goods most in demand.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the editor’s translation, Zhou wrote that “all trading in the country is done by women”, and that “there is a market once a day, from early morning until noon. There are no shops; goods are laid out on mats on the ground, each in its usual place, and I hear that rent for the space is paid to the officials.” Small deals used “rice, grain and Chinese goods, then cloth; for large deals, gold and silver”. The book calls Chinese people “Tang people” and Chinese goods “Tang goods”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bas-relief
A market scene on the Bayon reliefs, with women weighing goods (Photo: Markalexander100 \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The goods most wanted from China, in Zhou’s list, were “Chinese gold and silver first, then light silks of many colours; next, pewter from Zhenzhou, lacquer trays from Wenzhou, celadon from Quanzhou and Chuzhou, mercury, vermilion, paper, sulphur, saltpetre, sandalwood… umbrellas, iron pots and copper trays”. Among local produce he listed kingfisher feathers, ivory, rhinoceros horn and beeswax as fine goods, and aromatic woods, cardamom and other plant products as coarse goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhou also noted that many Chinese sailors settled in Cambodia, partly because “rice is easy to obtain… houses are easy to build, utensils easy to come by, and trade easy to do”. In 2025, more than half of Cambodia’s imports came from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Item<\/th>Zhou Daguan (late 13th century)<\/th>2025<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Chinese goods<\/td>Gold and silver, silks, pewter, lacquer trays, celadon, mercury, paper, umbrellas, iron pots, copper trays and more<\/td>Cambodia imported US$18.04 billion from China, up 34.3%, or 53.25% of all imports<\/td><\/tr>
Local produce and exports<\/td>Kingfisher feathers, ivory, rhinoceros horn, beeswax, aromatic woods, cardamom<\/td>Cambodia exported US$1.69 billion to China, down 3.6%<\/td><\/tr>
Scale of trade<\/td>Small deals in rice, grain and Chinese goods; large deals in gold and silver<\/td>Bilateral trade of US$19.73 billion, up 29.9%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
2025 data: General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE), reported by The Phnom Penh Post on 14 January 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

7. Festivals, seasons and language in Zhou’s account<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zhou recorded that Cambodia began its year in the tenth Chinese month, celebrating with lantern-hung stands before the palace and fireworks; he also described a rainy season and a dry season of six months each, with three or four harvests a year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new year month, he wrote, was called jiade (\u4f73\u5f97). A stand holding more than a thousand people was built before the palace, and fireworks and firecrackers were set off from tall stands on the opposite bank, visible “from a hundred li away”, for half a month. Wikipedia notes that jiade corresponds to K\u0101rttika, and that Zhou’s account helps establish K\u0101rttika as the first month of the Khmer calendar at the time. Khmer New Year is now celebrated in mid-April; in 2026 it fell on 14\u201316 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each month had its own event. In the fifth month, “Buddha images from near and far are brought to the king, with water to bathe him”; in the seventh, newly ripe rice was burned outside the south gate as an offering; in the eighth came ai-lan, which Zhou explains is dancing. He also noted that the twelve animals of the zodiac were the same as in China, with different names: the horse was bu-sai, the chicken man, the pig zhi-lu and the ox ge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On farming, Zhou wrote that “half the year has rain and half has none. From the fourth to the ninth month it rains every day, in the afternoon. In the freshwater sea the water rises seven or eight zhang, and great trees are submerged”, while from the tenth to the third month there is no rain at all. He also observed three or four harvests a year. His description matches the seasonal swing of Tonle Sap Lake today, from about 3,000 km\u00b2 in the dry season to about 16,000 km\u00b2 in the wet season, covered in our Water Festival article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhou also wrote down Khmer numbers: “one is mei, two bie, three bei, four ban, five bolan, six bolan-mei”. In modern Khmer, as transliterated by Wikipedia, one to five are muoy, pir, bei, buon and pram, and six to nine are formed as “five plus one” to “five plus four”, the same pattern as Zhou’s bolan-mei (five plus one).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Angkor today: World Heritage, Chinese restoration teams and visitors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Angkor was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and received 955,131 international visitors in 2025. A Chinese restoration team has worked there since 1998, completing work at Chau Say Tevoda and Ta Keo and now restoring the Royal Palace site.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Angkor was inscribed in 1992, it was also placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, and it was removed from that list in 2004. A restoration team organised by the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage began work at Angkor in 1998, restored the Chau Say Tevoda and Ta Keo temples, and is now working on the Royal Palace site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Ta Keo, restored by the Chinese team (Photo: Diego Delso \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Xinhua reported on 2 January 2026, citing the site operator Angkor Enterprise, that the Angkor Archaeological Park received 955,131 international visitors in 2025, down 6.7% from 2024, and earned US$44.7 million from ticket sales, down 6.5%. The main source markets were the United States, Britain, France, China and South Korea. Before the pandemic, in 2018, Angkor Wat received about 2.6 million foreign visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pass<\/th>Price<\/th>Validity<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Angkor 1-day pass<\/td>US$37<\/td>1 day<\/td><\/tr>
Angkor 3-day pass<\/td>US$62<\/td>Any 3 days within 7 days<\/td><\/tr>
Angkor 7-day pass<\/td>US$72<\/td>Any 7 days within 30 days<\/td><\/tr>
Koh Ker 1-day pass<\/td>US$15<\/td>1 day<\/td><\/tr>
Beng Mealea 1-day pass<\/td>US$10<\/td>1 day<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Source: Angkor Enterprise official website, checked 27 October 2026. The Angkor park is open 5:00 to 18:30; check the official site for current prices.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Manhattan Special Economic Zone is in Bavet, Svay Rieng Province, about 6 km from the Bavet\u2013Moc Bai international border checkpoint with Vietnam. For Cambodia’s full holiday calendar, see Cambodia public holidays 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Angkor Wat and Zhou Daguan: FAQ<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Q1: Who wrote A Record of Cambodia?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhou Daguan, a Yuan-dynasty envoy from Wenzhou, China. He visited Cambodia in 1296\u201397 and wrote his account in 40 sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q2: How long did Zhou Daguan stay at Angkor?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He arrived in August 1296 and left in July 1297, about eleven months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q3: Why is Zhou Daguan's account important?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most surviving Angkorian writing is temple inscriptions; Zhou's book is the only surviving first-person record of daily life in the Khmer Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q4: Who built Angkor Wat?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Suryavarman II, between 1113 and 1150, as a Hindu temple to Vishnu; it later became a Buddhist temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q5: What is the difference between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angkor Wat is an early-12th-century temple. Angkor Thom is the walled capital founded by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century, just north of Angkor Wat, with the Bayon at its centre; it was the city Zhou Daguan visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q6: How much is an Angkor Wat ticket?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Angkor pass costs US$37 for one day, US$62 for three days (valid 7 days) and US$72 for seven days (valid 30 days), per Angkor Enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q7: How many people visited Angkor in 2025?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angkor Enterprise reported 955,131 international visitors to the Angkor Archaeological Park in 2025, down 6.7% from 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q8: Which translations of Zhou Daguan's book exist?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

French translations by Abel-R\u00e9musat (1819) and Paul Pelliot (1902), and Peter Harris's English translation (2007); Xia Nai published an annotated Chinese edition in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on Cambodia’s festivals, history and customs, see our Cambodian Culture<\/a> section. This article was compiled by the Manhattan Special Economic Zone editorial team. Quotations from Zhenla Fengtu Ji follow the Wikisource text and are the editor’s own literal translations; all other figures are sourced below. To learn about factory space and services in the zone, contact our investment team<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n